Robert live-blogged the proceedings, and here is additional reporting: “Fathima Rifqa Bary: Judge keeps girl in Florida, orders mediation,” by Amy L. Edwards and Renee Stutzman for the Orlando Sentinel, September 3:
For now, Fathima Rifqa Bary is staying in Florida.
That was the biggest decision Thursday afternoon of Circuit Court Judge Daniel Dawson, who also put a gag order on attorneys involved in the case of the 17-year-old runaway from Ohio and then sent the case to mediation.
Dawson made it clear he does not want the case — which pits Bary, a self-proclaimed Muslim who has converted to Christianity, against her Muslim parents — to be hashed out in a courtroom.
Bary ran away from home last month, hopping a Greyhound bus from Columbus, Ohio, bound for Orlando and the home of the Lorenzes, local pastors. Although her parents reported her missing to Ohio law enforcement authorities, Florida’s Department of Children and Families took control of her two weeks ago.
She has been with a foster family since, fighting for the right to stay here and away from Ohio.
The judge ordered the case into mediation; issued a gag order to attorneys; decided to keep a recently-issued seal on an investigative report for 10 days; and said Bary will remain in foster care in Florida for the immediate future.
John K. Cooper, director of the Central Region for DCF, said that mediation will allow the parties to look at several different issues. There are “very complicated issues at hand,” he said.
“Its going to take a lot of work to get this family back together,” he said.
Dawson set a pretrial hearing for Sept. 28….
Other sources, including Robert, reported the date as September 29.
Read it all. There is additional discussion of the issues surrounding mediation and the gag order, as well as the position of Ohio authorities, who have said “they’ve investigated the family and believe it is safe for Rifqa to return.”